Author to speak about citizen empowerment

Paul Loeb, a writer who has spent more than 30 years researching citizen responsibility and empowerment, will deliver a lecture at 6 p.m. Oct. 24 in the theater of A.K. Hinds University Center at Western Carolina University.

Loeb is the author of Soul of a Citizen, The Impossible Will Take a Little While and co-author of the essay “My Vote Doesn’t Matter.” In 2008, he created and coordinated the Campus Election Engagement Project, a nonpartisan effort to encourage college and university students to vote and participate in the election. Loeb is running the project again for 2012.

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The Naturalist's Corner

Friends and followers of “The Naturalist’s Corner” know I’m keeping a year-list of birds I see/hear this year. As I wrote in an earlier column, “I was just curious about how many different species of birds I normally run into throughout the year.” And I have a great core of birding activities that provide a good nucleus for a list including Christmas Bird Count, George Ellison’s Great Smoky Mountains Birding Expedition, my annual point count contract with the Forest Service and other opportunities such as leading a trip for the Franklin Bird Club, generally leading birding trips during the annual Wildflower Pilgrimage (which, regrettably, I missed this year due to a scheduling conflict with spring break) and an annual summer trip to Isle of Palms. The Isle of Palms trip is the one I was counting on for a list boost.